Vacation

This review may contain spoilers!

This film is more often cringe-worthy than genuinely funny. I would give Vacation a 3.5/10.

Vacation had some genuinely entertaining scenes that brought the film up in places; these particular scenes felt more like great skits than anything else but they did serve to make the film more enjoyable.

Ed Helms, who played Rusty Griswold, was a great protagonist within this film; he really did a good job of working his character into scenes in a comedic way. Skyler Gisondo, who played James Griswold, really had some fantastic awkward comedy; he put a lot of enthusiasm into his performance which made him entertaining to watch. Steele Stebbins, who played Kevin Griswold, worked reall well as an aggressive character; he embraced the bratty confrontational brother role really well. Regina Hall, who played Nancy Peterson, was absolutely hilarious in her cameo, I loved the commentary on social media that she presented in her role.

However the best performance came from Charlie Day, who played Chad. Day was full of energy the minute he appeared onscreen in his cameo role. His quips really worked well with his parody of someone who works at an attraction. I liked the small arc of his character and how it was very melodramatic. Day's a performance that always manages to stand out comically.

The film's overall story was kind of poor, the characters didn't go through major development and it just reached a rather absurd point as it went along. The pacing was pretty bad to go hand in hand with this, it felt like the story was going through the motions of a skit show rather than a well written plot. The cinematography felt kind of basic, there wasn't anything there to make Vacation stand out. Beyond that the special effects were very artificial looking, the poor modelling work is presented to us from the start with the shot of the plane. The soundtrack for this movie, with the exception of "Kiss From a Rose", seemed mismatched and a poor attempt to somehow make the film funnier.

Christina Applegate, who played Debbie Griswold, was quite a stiff performance in this film; her attitude and manner never really changed. Chris Hemsworth, who played Stone Cransdall, was a let down of a cameo; his repetition of the same jokes combined with his dislikeable character made him a poor point in the film. Leslie Mann, who played Audrey Crandall, just felt like a side piece to Hemsworth in this film; it was actually frustrating to see her so under utilised when she's proven herself to be a fantastic comedic actress in other films. Chevy Chase, who played Clark Griswold, was far too over the top; I wouldn't call his performance acting so much as I would call it going through the motions of slapstick comedy. Catherine Missal, who played Adena, was the unfortunate actress assigned to the very standard romance subplot; it was awkward and there was no chemistry at all between her and Gisondo. Ron Livingston, who played Ethan, was an awful antagonist; I have no idea why it seemed necessary to bring him back at the end but it wasn't a well written decision. Norman Reedus, who played Trucker, was another disappointing cameo; the humour around his role was just awful and I feel like the bar for the jokes could've been set higher. Keegan-Michael Key, who played Jack Peterson, was a cameo that was just terribly underused; his simple dialogue with Helms was more cringe-worthy than anything. Nick Kroll, Tim Heidecker, Kaitlin Olson and Michael Pena, who played Colorado Cop, Utah Cop, Arizona Cop and Nex Mexico Cop respectively, were all awful cameos; the scene they were in wasn't very funny and was yet another scene that fell flat.